Male pistachio variety named 'FAMOSO'
A new male pistachio variety (Pistacia vera L.) designated as ‘Famoso’ is provided that is well-suited for serving as a pollenizer of the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ and other mid-to late-season pistachio varieties. ‘Famoso’ has a better overlap in the flowering period of ‘Kerman’ than does the industry-standard male pistachio variety ‘Peters’. ‘Famoso’ is also more precocious than ‘Peters’; ‘Famoso’ produces flowers three to four years after budding as compared to ‘Peters’, which typically takes four to five years to produce flowers after budding. ‘Famoso’ also has a flowering period that is more coincident with the flowering period of ‘Kerman’, while ‘Peters’ often flowers later than ‘Kerman’ and has been reported to have poor blooms in some years.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/147,540, filed Apr. 14, 2015, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
LATIN NAMEBotanical/commercial classification: (Pistacia vera L.), new pistachio cultivar.
VARIETAL DENOMINATIONThe varietal denomination of the claimed pistachio variety is ‘Famoso’.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONAn objective of pistachio breeding programs is to develop improved male pollinators of the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’. The female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ is the main later-season pistachio cultivar grown in California and in other parts of the world. The male pistachio variety ‘Peters’ is a common male cultivar used as a pollen source to pollinate ‘Kerman’. Although ‘Peters’ is viewed as the industry standard pollinator variety for ‘Kerman’, ‘Peters’ often flowers later than ‘Kerman’ and has a history of providing poor flowering overlap with ‘Kerman’ in some years, especially in years with insufficient chilling. Even in seasons of relatively adequate chilling, ‘Peters’ is generally not very precocious. ‘Peters’ is slow to produce flowers as a juvenile tree as compared to ‘Kerman’. The female ‘Kerman’, at 6th or 7th leaf, will have many flowers, while ‘Peters’ trees will have none or relatively few. Typically, the female variety ‘Kerman’ is ˜one year ahead of the male variety ‘Peters’ in terms of flower development, which results in a year of lost production. Further, in low chill years, ‘Peters’ has performed very poorly. In some young orchards, ‘Peters’ produced almost no flowers, the flowers that were produced had no pollen, and it often bloomed 1-2 weeks later than ‘Kerman’. This has resulted in inadequate pollination of ‘Kerman’ and reduced yield potential.
Pistachio growers are in need of a male pistachio variety that is more precocious than ‘Peters’, performs better in low chill years, and has a better flowering overlap with the female variety ‘Kerman’. Thus, there exists a need for improved pollinator varieties, such as male varieties having improved flowering overlap with ‘Kerman’. The present male pistachio variety ‘Famoso’ described herein is a product of the breeding efforts to produce improved male pistachio varieties.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a new and distinct pistachio cultivar (Pistacia vera L.) that has been denominated as ‘Famoso’, and more particularly as a male pistachio variety that has a better overlap with the flowering period of the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ than does the male pistachio variety ‘Peters’. The male pistachio variety ‘Famoso’ is more precocious than ‘Peters’; ‘Famoso’ produces flowers three to four years after budding as compared to ‘Peters’, which typically takes four to five years to produce flowers after budding. The male pistachio variety ‘Famoso’ also has a flowering period that is more coincident with the flowering period of the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’, while the male pistachio variety ‘Peters’ often flowers later than ‘Kerman’ and has been recorded to have poor flowering overlap with ‘Kerman’ and to have poor blooms during some years, especially during years with low chilling, which are expected to become more frequent in future years in view of the warming climate.
By providing a better overlap in flowering period with ‘Kerman’ than is provided by ‘Peters’, ‘Famoso’ should improve ‘Kerman’ yield, especially in years when ‘Peters’ flowers significantly later than ‘Kerman’. ‘Famoso’ flowering is more consistent than ‘Peters’, and ‘Famoso’ also produces a large amount of pollen over an extended period. ‘Famoso’ is potentially significant as an alternative to ‘Peters’ for the California, New Mexican, Arizona, and world-wide pistachio industry. ‘Famoso’ may be used as the pollenizer for mid- to late-season pistachio cultivars such as ‘Kerman’. ‘Famoso’ may also be used as an additional pollenizer of female pistachio varieties (e.g. ‘Kerman’) in orchards along with the male variety ‘Peters’ or other male pistachio varieties.
The cross that produced ‘Famoso’ was originally made during Year 1, and the original seedling of ‘Famoso’ was planted at a research plot near Bakersfield, Calif. during Year 2. The cross was made between Pistacia vera L. female ‘2-35’ and Pistacia vera L. male ‘ES#4’. ‘Famoso’ was originally designated as selection ‘B19-69’. Following initial identification, selection ‘B19-69’ was subsequently planted in field tests plots near Famoso, Calif. and other locations (e.g. Little Creek and Tejon Ranch). Selection ‘B19-69’ was asexually reproduced during Year 11 when buds from this selection were budded to rootstocks, which were then planted during Year 11 at two test locations in California, USA. Specifically, ‘B19-69’ was asexually reproduced in the trial using grafting (T-buds) directly onto pre-planted rootstocks in the two trial areas. The buds were collected from the U.C. seedling selection trial located in Kern County, Calif., USA. Selection ‘B19-69’ was chosen as a candidate for release under the variety name ‘Famoso’.
The following is a detailed botanical description of the new male pistachio cultivar designated as ‘Famoso’, including the key differentiating characteristics of this variety and comparisons of certain characteristics of ‘Famoso’ to other pistachio varieties.
Color of leaves: For leaves, color evaluations were done on at least 3 leaves, each new and mature, collected at random from a ‘Famoso’ tree during the summer of Year 25. Color descriptions are based on the color standards presented in Royal Horticultural Society; R.H.S. colour chart v. 3 QC495 R8 V.3. Mature leaves, top surface=137B, bottom surface=137B, 137C, new leaves, top surface=137A, 137B, bottom surface=139C, 138B, leaf midrib=145C. An image of the leaves of ‘Famoso’ is presented in
Flowering Time: ‘Famoso’ is at full bloom ˜1.4 days before or after ‘Kerman’ and 7-9 days after ‘Golden Hills’, but 2-7 days before ‘Peters’ and ˜4 days after ‘Randy’ (depending on the season). The male pistachio variety ‘Famoso’ flowered at approximately the same time as the female pistachio variety ‘Kerman’ over a five year period at two locations in the major pistachio production areas of the San Joaquin valley (TABLE 1A). TABLE 1A shows mean “full bloom” flowering dates for ‘Famoso’ and ‘Randy’ over a 5 year period, referenced to ‘Kerman’ (day 0). The pistachio trees described in TABLE 1A were established (grafted into the orchard) during Year 13. Overall, ‘Randy’ flowered about 4 days before ‘Famoso’, while ‘Famoso’ peak flowering was about 1.5 days ahead of ‘Kerman’. An image of ‘Famoso’ in bloom is presented in
Low Chill Flowering: TABLE 1B presents flowering time results for Year 26, which was a low chill year. In Year 26, ‘Famoso’ was similar to ‘Randy’ in terms of flowering date, and ‘Famoso’ flowered long before ‘Peters’. Both ‘Randy’ and ‘Famoso’ overlapped with ‘Kerman’. Despite the overlap between ‘Randy’ and ‘Kerman’ in this low chill year, from TABLE 1A above, it is seen that, in a normal chill year, ‘Randy’ would flower too early for good pollenization of ‘Kerman’. ‘Famoso’ is intermediate to ‘Randy’ and ‘Peters’ for flowering date and thus can overlap with ‘Kerman’ in both higher and lower chilling seasons.
Flower Density: On a flower density scale (1=low, 4=high), ‘Famoso’ ranks at an average of ˜3. This is higher than the rating of ‘Peters’, which ranks at a maximum of 2 as a mature tree. ‘Randy’ ranks as a strong 4.
Pollen: ‘Famoso’ has good pollen viability, providing good quantities of viable pollen. ‘Famoso’ sheds a large amount of pollen over a reasonably extended period (19, 14 and 20 days at the Famoso trial in Year 20, Year 21, and Year 22, respectively), and has a highly coincident flowering period with ‘Kerman’. Pollen germination at pollen shed for ‘Famoso’ is high and similar to both ‘Randy’ and ‘Peters’. ‘Famoso’ produces more abundant flowers and pollen as a juvenile tree compared to ‘Peters’. Views of ‘Famoso’ flower clusters both prior to and at dehiscence are presented in
Pollen Germination (Year 26): Pollen germination is somewhat a snapshot in time, as it can vary from early to late bloom. Different inflorescences and flowers on the same branch will shed pollen at different times during the bloom period. This is a semi-random process. To analyze fresh pollen counts (germination) in Year 26, pollen from a variety of male pistachio varieties was collected between March 21 and March 31. Pollen was germinated on 18% sucrose with some boron and calcium nitrate, and at low light in a humid chamber. The pollen of each cultivar was germinated using hanging drop slides. Each slide had two wells and three of these slides were prepared for each cultivar. Germination results are presented below. ‘Randy’ is a proven pollinizer for the 30,000+ acres of ‘Golden Hills’ planted in the San Joaquin Valley, and ‘Famoso’ had higher pollen germination percentages than ‘Randy’ or ‘Peters’ in this study (Year 26)(TABLE 3A, TABLE 3B,
Aged Pollen Germination: In Year 26, pollen was collected from ‘Famoso’ and several comparison male pistachio varieties, including ‘Randy’ and ‘Peters’. The collected pollen was stored in a refrigerator for two days prior to conducting viable pollen counts (germination assay). This “aged pollen” count provides an estimate of pollen durability. Mean viable pollen counts for each variety are presented in
Pollen Quantities: During March of Year 26, branches with dehiscing inflorescences were collected and evaluated. Treatments involved taking four to five shoots that were 8-12 inches long with dehiscing inflorescences and placing them on craft paper overnight, followed by pollen collection the following morning. Pollen from three replicates of each treatment were collected and weighed. Treatments were normalized by counting the number of actively dehiscing inflorescences. ANOVA and ANOMA were performed with MiniTab. Mean pollen weights for each variety are presented in
Inflorescence Density: The tree canopies of several male cultivars were photographed to provide an approximate evaluation of the number of inflorescences in the canopy. It is difficult to develop methods that accurately quantify this variable, which is highly dependent on tree size, pruning, and tree health.
Claims
1. A new and distinct variety of pistachio tree designated ‘Famoso’ as shown and described herein.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 4, 2016
Publication Date: Oct 20, 2016
Patent Grant number: PP28994
Inventors: Craig E. KALLSEN (Davis, CA), Dan E. PARFITT (Davis, CA), Joseph MARANTO (Davis, CA)
Application Number: 14/999,156
International Classification: A01H 5/00 (20060101);